The partners at Payette are pleased to announce the establishment of this annual memorial scholarship to honor their friend, colleague and fellow partner, Sho-Ping Chin FAIA. This scholarship fund, developed in collaboration with the American Institute of Architects Foundation, will award a scholarship of $10,000 each year to a woman for the study of architecture.

More information about eligibility and administration of the fund can be found here.

Sho-Ping wasn’t just a leader at Payette, or someone who generously lent her wonderful energy and vision to the profession of architecture. More than anything, she was a remarkable human being.

Eric White, Executive Director, BSA

Remembering Sho-Ping Chin, FAIA
During her tenure at Payette and throughout her career, Sho-Ping Chin, FAIA brought a fierce determination to designing high caliber spaces for those in need. This determination translated to a passion for civic responsibility and equity in the profession. Sho-Ping led the healthcare practice at Payette from 2000 to her untimely passing in 2015. At Payette she focused exclusively on healthcare because she felt passionately about it. She worked continuously to inspire others to feel similarly. Her involvement on projects was comprehensive from inception with planning and programming to occupancy. She firmly believed successful outcomes are derived from an inclusive design process where she worked effectively to build and obtain consensus. In addition to her contributions as a Principal of the firm, she was a wonderful mentor and instilled her teams with a sense of camaraderie and commitment to design.

Sho-Ping’s projects ranged in type and scale, including master planning and significant additions to complex renovations at major academic institutions, such as Boston Children’s Hospital and Penn State Health Hershey Medical Center as well as local community hospitals. She was especially committed to improving healthcare conditions for veterans through multiple projects at various Veterans Affairs Medical Centers in New England. In the latter years of her career, she developed a specialized expertise in image-guided hybrid surgical suites where her goal was to achieve efficacy in these high-tech clinical spaces within a humanized context.

Sho-Ping believed that architecture can be achieved in each project regardless of program, scope or mission, and she brought that belief to every project she encountered. In no place is this better demonstrated than her selfless and steadfast commitment to bring state-of-the-art healthcare to Haiti. It is our hope that one of her final projects, the Maternity Ward and Neonatal Care Unit at L’Hôpital de St. Boniface Hospital, will have lasting impact. In addition to her work on the Maternity Ward, Sho-Ping was a founding member of Sustainable Healthcare for Haiti, an organization that plans to name its first healthcare facility after Sho-Ping.

Sho-Ping received both her B.A. and M.Arch. from Princeton University. She was an active participant in the AIA, serving on various local committees at the Boston Society of Architects, the Architecture Boston Editorial Board as well as the National AIA Board as one of the New England Regional Directors (2012-2015). In 2006, Sho-Ping founded the BSA’s Women Principals Group as a platform for advancing the role of women in the profession to encompass the full spectrum of architecture, urban design and planning, sustainable technology and social responsibility. Sho-Ping’s initiative culminated by organizing the Women’s Leadership Summit, the first national AIA gathering of women leaders, which took place in Chicago in 2009.